Beijing has made a decision to reduce the number of vehicles during heavy pollution days. The city government on October 17, 2013 said that some 80 percent of public vehicles and 50 percent of private cars will be banned from the city's roads during those days.
During the period of heavy air pollution which is expected to last three or more days, cars and vans are going to be limited, according to odd and even license numbers. The city's authorities have said that cars and vans are hugely responsible for the significant amounts of fine particulate matter which is causing air pollution in Beijing.
Fang Li, the spokesperson for the Beijing Environmental Protection Bureau during a press conference said, “The bureau will inform the public of the traffic control measures more than 12 hours in advance.” Li went on to say that forecasting environmental and air quality is more complicated than meteorological predictions and that the bureau needs to be aware of the information it releases to the public.
Yu Jianhua, the director of the air quality department at the bureau said that the bureau will attempt to further improve the mechanism for forecasts and warnings. The government will also try to reduce the number of official vehicles in use at such times by 30 percent.
